Tag: mystery & suspense

So the steely-eyed, sixty-something Liam Neeson is at it again carrying both an itchy trigger finger and a grudge on his action-packed aging shoulders. In the frantic aviation thriller ‘Non-Stop’, Neeson continues his late career joyride into a matured badass out to kick some serious butt in yet another eye-rolling generic actioner. True, it would be […]

Filmmaker Paul W. S. Anderson’s misguided molten-driven melodrama Pompeii is not as explosive in conception as one would imagine based upon its manufactured, boisterous presentation. The heavy-handed histrionics involving ‘Pompeii’s main ‘rock’ star (yes, that would be the infamous Mt. Vesuvius that spewed its way into legendary mythology) meshed together with the customary presence of wayward gladiators, a toothless […]

Sometimes what is considered someone’s trashy findings is indeed another person’s treasure. Co-writer/director Douglas Aarniokoski may very well fit this sentiment with his inspired horror showcase ‘Nurse 3-D’, a relentlessly cheapened and chilly small-scale piece of grindhouse cinema that registers its exploitative muster with winning, sleazy results. Sure, ‘Nurse 3-D’ resorts to its titillating tricks that make for […]

Naturally, love is all around now that the seasonal Valentine’s Day spirit is floating in the air. Of course, this means that Hollywood’s opportunistic pulse wants to tap into moviegoers’ affectionate hearts at the expense of box office-bound lovers everywhere. Thus, the emergence of writer-director Akiva Goldman’s whimsical romancer ‘Winter’s Tale’, a bloated and sugary supernatural […]

If anything else, the movie-going experience should pander to our visual expectations in the omnipresent genre of Science Fiction. The technological excellence, the sheer opulence of the state-of-the-art special effects, the spell-binding tension, the imagination and wonderment of a compelling narrative, the overall sophistication of escapist entertainment, intriguing and charismatic lead performers all make for […]

The taut political suspense thriller ‘Shadow Dancer’ spins a tale of terrorism that works fabulously on the nerves. Armed with gritty performances by leads Andrea Riseborough (‘Oblivion’, ‘Disconnect’) and Clive Owen, ‘Shadow Dancer’ is skillfully punctuated by intense twists and turns that make up this compelling drama about the hostile climate between the British government […]

Well, the gang are all back for a second helping of manufactured lunacy in ‘Insidious: Chapter 2′: writer-director James Wan, screenwriter-supporting actor Leigh Whannell and, of course, the periled fictional family unit in the Lambert clan. As the sequel to 2010’s ‘Insidious’, the peek-a-boo plight of the Lamberts in ‘Insidious: Chapter 2′ is once again […]

‘Blue Caprice’ is a different kind of riveting horror movie of sorts. No, it does not feature the CGI visibility of hideous creatures out for random bloodthirsty vengeance. It does, however, showcase the invisible monster within the damaged human psyche that craves spontaneous carnage without any definitive rhyme or reason. In most over-the-top horror films […]

The premise for ‘Closed Circuit’ looked quite promising: a sophisticated political thriller steeped in conspiracy, mayhem and mystery. One was sure that director John Crowley’s (‘Boy A’) stiff-minded intriguing narrative would stand out above the rest of the derivative and crowded suspense capers that invade the big screen from time to time. Although it is […]

The problem with some legendary filmmakers is that when they let their guard down slightly and dip into uncharacteristic mediocrity the red flags start to wave. Could this be the case for an immensely revered movie mastermind such as Brian DePalma whose cinematic touch in the cinema scene from the 70s and 80s were among […]